James Forrester: The Roots of Betrayal

Clarenceux shook his head. “That is all with these men, Sir William, but not for you and me. Not by a long way. I want to believe I can trust you again. I want you to trust me. And I don’t believe that that will be possible until we are entirely honest with each other. Even now, we are evading each other. You still have the document at the heart of all this. The root of all this betrayal lies in your distrust of me.”

“Come outside, Mr. Clarenceux,” said Cecil.

The two men left the building. Immediately, despite the pouring rain, Cecil rounded on Clarenceux. “Listen to me,” he began, but at that moment there was a flash of lightning and the thunder crashed and rolled, silencing him for several seconds. “I will never forgive you. Never. This humiliation is…unsupportable.”

“By God’s wounds, Sir William. What crime have I committed that was not in self-defense and an attempt to right wrongs? What have I done? I kept the document as you ordered me to. I guarded it with my life. It went missing and you led me to believe that Rebecca Machyn had stolen it. You even told the ship’s captain that Rebecca was being sent to Southampton by Percy Roy-knowing full well that I would equate those initials with the Knights of the Round Table: Sir Percival, Sir Reynold, Sir Owain and Sir Yvain. You deliberately misled me. Nevertheless, I did all I could to recover that document in good faith. I risked death. I went to Mrs. Barker’s house and I was tortured. I was taken by Walsingham and locked up. You too imprisoned me. Almost immediately after escaping, I was captured by a pirate who believed I could lead him to the traitor Denisot, whom I now discover is in your pay. I was stabbed in the hand, dragged behind a ship on a rope, and forced to fight for my life against Sir Peter Carew. I ended up at Calshot being imprisoned by Captain Parkinson and had to fight for my freedom. In all that, what have I done that deserves your condemnation? Nothing! You on the other hand, were making me look after a document that was your insurance in case a Catholic queen should come again. If there had been an invasion, and if it had gone the way of the Queen of Scots-you would have called for that document. Publishing it would have been your glory and the final nail in the hopes of our present queen. She would have gone the way of her cousin Lady Jane Gray to the block. You may keep the document now if you feel you must, but it is not with my blessing. I have suffered too much.”

Cecil shook his head. “I do not have it.”

“What?” Clarenceux did not believe Cecil and simply stared at him. But he saw no evasiveness. The man was telling the truth.

“If…you didn’t take it, who did?”

“Your wife.”

The word hit him. He felt suddenly weak. He wanted to sit down. “I don’t believe you.”

“I am going to say this just once,” said Cecil, his face soaked with rain, “and then I am going to walk away. You and I will not see each other nor speak to each other. You will send your letter to no one and I will take no action against you. You will say nothing against me nor I against you. This matter ends here.”

Cecil took a deep breath. “I knew Lady Percy would never let matters rest, so I had Walsingham put a watch on her house. That coded message from Mrs. Barker, who is Lady Percy’s sister living under cover in London, was brought to me on the fifth day of May. I recognized the code as a cipher instantly and I stayed up late that night, after Walsingham had left me, working out its true meaning. I deciphered it that same night-long before Walsingham. It told me that Rebecca Machyn was acting with the Knights of the Round Table and was going to deliver the Percy-Boleyn marriage agreement to them. I believed that that meant you were also in accord with her decision. I could hardly ask you to your face. The message also told me that she would be taken by ship with her brother two days later to Scotland.

“I had very little time to act. I knew your wife was coming to my house to see my wife and so I confronted Awdrey with what I knew. She declared that you would never betray me, that you would never give the document to Widow Machyn, even though she knew how fond you were of her. From this I established that she knew about it. That did not surprise me; a wife often knows more of her husband’s secrets than he realizes. I explained to her my fear that you would give it to Rebecca Machyn because of your love for that woman. I asked her to give me the document to prevent that happening. Still she refused to do so. She would not betray you, she said. Desperate, I made a deal with her that afternoon-the day we discussed you being ambassador to the Low Countries. I would arrange for Rebecca Machyn to disappear at the same time as Awdrey took the document and hid it. That way, the Knights would not get it, and you would believe that Widow Machyn had betrayed you, so Awdrey could be sure you would forget her. The pair of you would then leave the country and go to the Netherlands. As it was, you were just too suspicious and too attached to that document and to Widow Machyn for the plan to work. But the truth is that I meant it for the best-and so did Awdrey. She did what she did because she loves you. And she never wanted anyone to come between you-not Rebecca Machyn, not me, not even a document that could dethrone the queen.”

Clarenceux said nothing.

“Now, if you please, I will have the queen’s seal.”

With a shaking hand, Clarenceux reached into his doublet and pulled out the bag. He handed it to Cecil without a word. He stood still as Cecil walked back to the river. His eyes were unfocused as the man embarked on the covered boat, to return to the city. Nor did he acknowledge Griffiths when the man came to him, standing still and sodden, asking him if he wanted to be taken home. He started to walk to the river, water running down from his hair.

The storm moved away. Tom Griffiths rowed him back to St. Bride’s parish in the small boat. But the rain continued to run down his face long after the clouds had passed.

It was a difficult reconciliation. It took place in Chislehurst parish church on a bright afternoon on the last day of May. Clarenceux watched Julius walk with Awdrey across the common to the church and stop short, allowing her to come to him alone, as Clarenceux had specified in his letter. Without a word they had then gone inside, knelt and prayed together, and left, almost without a word passing between them.

The argument took place in the churchyard. It was an argument that had to happen-not for one side to win or the other to lose, but so both of them had a chance to say to each other what they felt, as firmly as they needed. Awdrey accused Clarenceux of being too close to Rebecca, and he had to confess his feelings were strong. But, he protested, he had never betrayed her, his wife. She maintained the same. “Nor did I ever betray you,” she said. “Sir William Cecil asked me to steal the marriage agreement from you and I refused him. I refused because I am your wife and I will always be loyal to you.”

“How did you know where it was?”

“There are two small holes in the door to your study. Through those holes I saw you often checking that chitarra . Once, when you were out, I put my fingers inside it and felt a document hidden there. But I never told Sir William. I never betrayed you.”

“You might not have betrayed me, but you misplaced your trust,” answered Clarenceux. “That is a betrayal of another kind.”

“And you misplaced your affections,” she responded. “That too feels like a betrayal.”

“That was not my fault. I can’t control my feelings…”

“And do you think I can control my trust any more than you can control your emotions?”